Tuesday, February 26, 2002 Modern cricket empires are built on extreme speed. The West Indian dynasties of Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards, untouchable throughout the 1980s, were swept aside only when their supply of thoroughbred fast bowlers bottomed out. Likewise, it is difficult to imagine anyone beating Australia - invincible outside the subcontinent since 1993 - until the rest of the world unearths someone, somewhere, who is capable of bowling quick and straight.

The South Africans were supposed to be the men for the task. On the evidence of past performances, they are the second-best team in the world. On the evidence of Johannesburg, they are the worst second-best team in history. One local commentator, bedazzled by the slaughter of Ntini, Nel and the decrepit Donald, mentioned that he had watched Australia's Under-19 team recently and reckoned they would thrash any first-class side in South Africa. He was being brazenly optimistic; Australia's Under-19s would thrash South Africa's Test XI too. When South Africa lost Shaun Pollock, they lost not only their finest player but their arms and legs as well.

Twenty years ago the second-best team in the world might have been expected to replace a great fast bowler with a very good one. Twenty years ago cricket matches turned on the deeds of hulking, huffing men like Holding, Garner, Roberts, Croft, Daniel, Marshall, Lillee, Thomson, Lawson, Hogg, Alderman, Willis, Botham, Hadlee, Imran and Kapil Dev. Ten years ago that well had begun to dry up, yet the world still had sinister types like Ambrose, Walsh, Patterson, Bishop, Hughes, McDermott, Wasim and Waqar to swoon over.

In 2002 Australia have three outstanding fast bowlers: Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee. The other nine Test nations, between them, have one: Pollock. After Pollock comes a zestful trickster in Chaminda Vaas, followed by a ragbag of has-beens (Donald, Wasim, Waqar, Srinath, Cairns, Gough), also-rans (Dillon, King, Nash, O'Connor, Prasad) and earnest up-and-comers (Bond, Hoggard, Ntini, Nel, Zaheer Khan, Zoysa). There is much hyperbole about this being the golden age of spin. History may prefer to record it as the dark ages of fast bowling.

The malaise spreads far beyond South Africa. The Caribbean fear factory shut down years ago. New Zealand's pace attack this summer, at least until Shane Bond's emergence, was of a calibre you might expect to see at the beach on a Sunday afternoon. In Sri Lanka, Muttiah Muralitharan's extraordinary wicket-taking ratio is bloated out of proportion by the fact that he is their only bowler - Vaas's recent purple patch aside - who can bowl batsmen out. And Pakistan have a disturbing habit of uncovering nuggets and promptly burying them in the dust.

All this does not add up to the present Australian team being the most successful in history. It does, however, mean they have been given a relatively easy ride. Matthew Hayden, in his early days, was found wanting by warriors like Donald and Ambrose. Yet how often has he had to survive a searching opening spell on his way to seven hundreds in his last 15 Tests? The Waughs are scratchier starters than ever. Yet when did they last confront a paceman capable of delivering the knockout punch? Adam Gilchrist, in his 27 amazing months as a Test cricketer, has never had to duck, hook and scrape his way out of a hostile ordeal on a bouncy pitch.

That is not to detract from his freewheeling Trumperesque 204 not out, the most freakish innings by an Australian batsman since his own 149 against Pakistan at Hobart two years ago. "Even the great man [Bradman, who else?] could not have reached the heights Gilchrist did," wrote the wrinkly cricket scribe Peter McFarline on Monday - the first anniversary of The Don's death, no less.

Chances are that Gilchrist, given the chance, would have knocked Joel Garner and the rest of Clive Lloyd's headhunters off their length in the swish of a blade. When Gilchrist arrived on the scene he was likened to Lloyd, another nerveless left-hander who used to brutalise bowlers with a tree-trunk for a bat. Already the evidence is mounting that Gilchrist hits harder, further and more frequently than even the Supercat.

Yet still one senses he is underachieving. He has a tendency to begin with a bang and tail away. His record in the opening matches of three-Test series, and in the first two games of five-Test series, is 1023 runs at 73. That falls to 868 runs at 45 in the later stages of a series. His double-century against South Africa - against whom he has played non-stop since December - suggests this is not a result of bowlers working Gilchrist out but of Gilchrist growing bored.

Hard as it is to picture now, the day will come when Gilchrist is under pressure. It will probably happen when his dodgy knees give way and he is forced to make his reputation as a batsman alone. Until then, he would be wise to make the most of every opportunity while the going is good. And, for a batsman, the going has rarely been better.

Chris Ryan is former managing editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly and a former Darwin correspondent of the Melbourne Age.

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